Disappearance of Marjorie West
Marjorie West was a missing American child who disappeared on May 8, 1938. She had just turned 4 when she was taken from McKean County, Pennsylvania on May 8, 1938.[1] Her disappearance was heavily covered by both local and national media, but her whereabouts have never been ascertained. In 2018, The Guardian, a British daily newspaper and the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, a nonprofit organization established by the United States Congress referred the Marjorie West's disappearance as "the great unsolved mystery of the missing".[2][3]
Marjorie West | |
|---|---|
 Portrait of 4-years old Marjorie West | |
| Born | June 2, 1933 Bradford, Pennsylvania |
| Disappeared | May 8, 1938 (4 years old) McKean County, Pennsylvania |
| Status | Missing for 82 years, 1 month and 19 days |
| Nationality | American |
| Parents |
|
| Relatives | Dorothea (sister) Allan (brother) |
She was born in Bradford, Pennsylvania. Her parents Shirley (father) and Cecilia (mother) had three children, including Marjorie and her sister Dorothea and a brother Allan. She was the younger child.[4]
Disappearance
In May 8, 1938, Marjorie, along with her parents, 7-year-old brother Allan and 11-year-old sister Dorothea, attended a church in Bradford, Pennsylvania.[5] After they attended the church, they went to Marshburg, Pennsylvania for a picnic to celebrate Mother's Day. Marjorie and her sister walked towards McKean County. However, their parents had warned them against walking alone. Following the child rearing-advice, her sister Dorothea left Marjorie alone and went to inform her parents. Immediately after the parents were informed, they rushed towards McKean County. But before reaching there, she disappeared and was never seen again. Her parents called the police, but the police found no evidence of Marjorie's whereabouts.[6][7]
Five days after her disappearance, the state police commissioner of that time, P. W. Foote, told the newspapers that Marjorie's disappearance probably began with a Hide-and-seek game, which was one of her favorites. [4]
Investigation
Police used dogs to pick up her scent trail but nothing was found. The searches were conducted by 3,000 local people, 500 policemen, including the Civilian Conservation Corps and the American fraternal order Elks Lodge to trace the missing child. Despite conducting massive searches of five months, police couldn’t find the missing child. "All available flash-lights in the city were pressed into service", noted the Bradford Era newspaper. The next day, police began a massive search and interviewed motorists ranging from motorcyclists to car drivers within a 300-square-mile area.[2] The Bradford Citizen Reward Committee later offered a reward of $2,500 for her safe return and information. Later, on May 10, police found clues they thought were related to the case and brought a bloodhound in from New York, but the accounts vary.[4]
Later developments
On the 70th anniversary of her disappearance, the fifth grade students at the School Street Elementary School developed different theories through offline and internet research on "who might have taken Marjory".[3]
References
- "'Round the Square for May 16, 2018". The Bradford Era.
- "The Great Unsolved Mystery of Missing Marjorie West". Narratively. May 8, 2018.
- Sager, Kate Day. "70 years later, missing girl still discussed". Olean Times Herald.
- Lissner, Caren (September 26, 2018). "The great unsolved mystery of the missing Marjorie West" – via www.theguardian.com.
- "9 real-life horror stories of people who disappeared and were never found". www.vox.com.
- "Marjorie West – The Charley Project".
- Lissner, Caren (June 21, 2019). "The (STILL) unsolved mystery of a little girl who vanished in 1938". Medium.